


Sticks Are for Fetching

by Katarina



Category: Clifford the Big Red Dog Series - Norman Bridwell
Genre: Gen, POV Alternating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-04 07:09:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20467052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katarina/pseuds/Katarina
Summary: Emily Elizabeth teaches Clifford to play fetch. There are a few misunderstandings along the way.





	Sticks Are for Fetching

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silveradept](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/gifts).

I'm so proud of my little Clifford! Today I started teaching him how to fetch sticks when I throw them, and he's learning so fast! He looks so proud of himself as he carries his stick back to me. The sticks aren't very big, since he's such a tiny puppy, but it is still quite an accomplishment for him. I hope he continues to be so much fun to play with once he has grown up a bit more. He's too small to be able to do very much. I have to be careful not to run too fast when we chase each other, or he will never be able to catch up with me. He is still so much fun to play with, though.

Anyway, let me tell you all about how it happened. I had to look around a bit to find a good stick, since we had already raked the yard this morning and cleaned up everything. I finally found something that would work, and tried to get Clifford's attention. Once he lost interest in chasing butterflies and started paying attention to me I dropped the stick, and tried to get him to pick it back up for me. He seemed confused, but after some trial and error he got the idea and picked it up. After I took it from him I gave him a bunch of cuddles, to encourage him to want to do it again. Then, I threw it a little bit further away. This time he seemed even more confused, but after a bit he went and brought it back to me. This process repeated itself, and he seemed to become gradually more understanding about what the point was.

_I had so much fun today with Emily! She wanted to teach me something new, even though I already know how to do so many things. I didn't quite understand what the purpose was of what she was doing, though. She had a stick which she seemed perfectly happy with. She'd spent quite a while looking for it, actually. Then, she decided she didn't like the stick anymore, and dropped it. I picked it back up for her, since she might have changed her mind. I guess then she really didn't want the stick anymore and she threw it farther away. I tried to change her mind by bringing it back to her again. It seemed to have worked, since she was really happy to have it back. She even gave me lots of cuddles! But then she kept changing her mind over and over again, and threw the stick away again and again. She always seemed happy when I brought it back to her, even though she usually doesn't act so wishy-washy. It's nice to get pets and scratches, even though all I did was bring something back to her that she just kept throwing away._

* * *

You might think that nothing bad can come of teaching your puppy to fetch sticks, but I found out today that it can have unforeseen consequences. Today was... well, let me just explain what happened. We went out to watch a local Little League game today, and brought Clifford with us. Although he has recently and inexplicably grown to the size of a small car, he usually behaves quite well, which lets me take him out in public without any problems. However, since I've taught him to fetch sticks, he now tries to perform that trick even when he's not really supposed to. Unfortunately the temptation of a dropped bat after the first home run was hit proved to be too much for him. Luckily we had already been sitting on the outskirts of the small crowd so no one was injured when Clifford ran to fetch the dropped bat, but the game did turn quite chaotic for a bit.

_Today I got a chance to show off to everybody! The day started off kind of boring, but it got a lot more fun later on. Instead of going for a walk today, we all went to watch a couple dozen kids throw a small ball around and chase after it. It seemed a little unfair that all these kids had to share the same ball. If they were able to play with more balls at the same time, then the game would be much more exciting. It did have one good point, though. The main idea of the game seemed to be to hit the ball with a stick, then drop the stick and run away. The stick ended up just laying there, and they didn't really do anything with it for a while, until the next kid had a turn. Since they must be missing somebody to retrieve the stick that they dropped, I volunteered myself. The next time this happened, I promptly ran over and picked up the stick. Okay, stick retrieved, now who to bring it to? It probably needed to be taken to the kid who just dropped it, even though nobody else seemed to be concerned about it. I followed the kid around to try to give his stick back to him, even though he seemed to just be running in a circle. Oh, maybe he realized that he needed his stick, and he was running back to pick it up again? He didn't seem to want to take it from me, though, even though I'm pretty sure he noticed me following him. The adults watching seemed a little upset, which didn't seem fair since I was just trying to help._

* * *

Okay, so I've got a problem. Clifford learned how to fetch sticks too well, and an unfortunate incident yesterday when he brought me a policeman's baton with the policeman still attached was the last straw. Luckily the policeman was very nice about the whole thing, but he did warn me that I need to train Clifford to not do anything like that again. I went searching for all the stick-shaped objects I could find, in order to tell Clifford which ones were all right to play with, and which ones he should leave alone. The policeman didn't let me borrow his baton, so I had to try to make a close replica.

"All right, Clifford. I hadn't thought that teaching you to fetch sticks would be such a problem, but with bigger dogs come bigger problems. Some of these objects are okay to play with, and some of them you need to learn to leave alone."

"Yes, Clifford, it's all right to play with logs. Just make sure to keep them out of the way."

"No, anything to do with police batons is a hard no. Let's stay far away from anything like that."

"Yes, now you're getting the idea. Now you're— wait, no, Clifford! That's the neighbor's flagpole!"

_Crash._


End file.
